over before it began
by chappers
Summary: A little story that wouldn't leave my head, about Mick getting himself in a bad situation, and for once it was the damsel who rescued him from distress. Warning some bad language, but only because I think it's what Mick would think/say in that kind of situation.
1. Chapter 1

a/n - so this isn't particularly good, but the only way to get these stories out of my head is to write them down, this one I might actually finish lol, it's almost done so if you want more chapters let me know and hopefully that will give me the courage to put the rest up. I'm not good at case fics so I'm cheating a little and cutting out the 'case' part by having it all go wrong! Well that could happen right? I loved the character of Mick Rawson on CM: suspect behaviour, such a shame it was cancelled after one season.

Mick snaked his neck slowly, trying to ease the pain in his head. Argh, this was so not a good day. Wriggling his arms and legs he tested the bonds that held him, yeah great, bloody fantastic, they weren't going anywhere soon, trust their subject to be good at tying knots. Opening his eyes he looked around, the blurred vision was almost gone now and he could see that the stable he'd been dragged into was bare, except for some mouldy straw bedding and a sight he tried to push from his mind. Dwelling on it did no good, though he found it hard to put out of his mind. The psycho they'd spooked had left him in there with the dead body of the local deputy who'd been his ride and his back-up, the poor guy hadn't stood a chance. Mick shook his head , he'd hardly done any better himself really, knocked over the head and trussed up like a chicken.

His team had been called out to Montana to deal with a serial killer, their unsub had been taking low risk people, hookers, drug addicts and presently hikers from the local area, the sheriffs department hadn't connected the missing people until the disappearances had suddenly escalated recently, they had next to no leads or evidence to go on, but with the body count steadily increasing they'd been forced into taking drastic measures, with pressure from the mayor and sheriff Sam had had no choice but to split the team up.

Each of them had been paired off with a local officer and given a list of possible suspects to check up on, it should have been a fairly routine fishing trip, they weren't supposed to rile them up too much, just narrow down the list, comparing the behaviour to the basic profile they'd developed. Rattle a few cages, but don't awaken the beast, that'd been sam's last words to the team, they'd planned to revisit the really likely ones again later with a fuller team. Mick half laughed, rattle the cage, they hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to this guy.

The deputy had gone to the front door and Mick had been casually checking out the outbuildings, his back to the guy when he'd heard a shotgun blast, the deputy had taken one to the chest and hadn't stood a chance. Looking at the body Mick hoped that there wasn't a wife and kids waiting for him at home. His own lone wolf existence was the best way really in his line of work, no ties, no one to worry, waiting for him to come home.

He grimaced as a wave of pain shot up from his leg, he couldn't see the damage to well, the shredded leg of his jeans hid the damage from him, but from the pool of blood in the straw beneath it he could tell that the blood still flowed sluggishly, well at least the guy hadn't hit an artery, that was a positive at least. As Sam would say, look for the positives in any situation, yeah well ok so there weren't many here.

Before Mick could discern where the shooter was firing from he'd been forced to dive for cover and got a calf full of buckshot for his trouble, still least he was alive, well, for now, heaven knows what that wack job had gotten planned for him when he came back and the guy had said he'd be back. Mick glanced at his watch, the team weren't expecting him to check in for at least another hour or so, and he had no idea how long the subject would be gone, so he couldn't rely on them finding him in time, he'd have to try and figure his own way out of this.

At least the pounding in his head was dimming, the shooter had had the drop on him. He moved surprisingly quietly for such a big man, and knowing the layout of the property gave him an advantage, though Mick still felt frustrated at how easily the guy had snuck up behind him and knocked him out. Coming to tied up in here wasn't the best moment of his career, though actually he could think of a few worse ones, there was that time with sam and well, yeah okay so obviously they'd gotten out of that spot, he told himself, irritated at how easily his mildly concussed mind wandered, reminiscing was hardly going to help here. Time to get off of his arse and try and get himself out of this somehow. Groaning in pain Rawson forced himself to his feet, trying to balance with his legs tied together and one of them injured at that proved impossible and he collapsed back into the straw.

Giving up on that idea and moving caterpillar style he made it to the sliding stall door, the top half was solid bars so even if he could stand there was no way out over them with his hands tied behind his back. He tried using his feet and then his hands to push at the sliding stall door, but it wouldn't budge. With his back to it, he felt around the metal edges looking for a spot rough enough to work the ropes over, to try and cut through them, finding a likely spot he began to rub away, trying to ignore the splinters and grazes to his hands and arms, they were small price to pay if he could get free.


	2. Chapter 2

Busy working on the rope as he was it took a moment before the hoof beats registered, one, no two horses, though the second sounded odd, and they were getting closer. For a moment he thought it might be the unsub, except he wasn't an unsub anymore, not really accurate to keep thinking of him as that, he'd seen the guys face just before he'd left and confirmed it was their suspect, Todd Jenkins. But he'd left in a truck so why would he come back with horses? What the hell Rawson decided, he was dead any way, even if it was Todd coming back on horseback somehow, making a noise might at least get the guy to finish him off quickly or rile him up enough to give Mick a chance to escape. If it wasn't him, then whoever it was might just get him out of here, so it was a no brainer really.

"Hey, hey, over here! HEY!"

Okay so the shouting didn't do the pounding in his head much good, but the hoof beats stopped.

"Hey in here" he called again. There was a pause and then hoof beats started again moving slowly towards him, again they stopped, but after a moment he could hear footsteps coming closer.

"Hello? Who's there?"

It was a woman voice, so not the subject, a relief and bloody hell, her accent actually sounded English, maybe he was more concussed than he thought, what the hell was an English woman doing out here in the backwoods of Montana?

"Hi, I'm kind of locked in here, my names Mick Rawson," he tried to keep his tone calm, he didn't want to scare her off "I'm an FBI agent and I need your help" yeah so it hurt to say those four words but it was true.

"Is this some kind of joke? Todd is that you?" her steps came closer as she spoke, until she was the other side of the locked door.

Mick rolled away from the door, so that she could see him through the bars, "no joke ma'am"

She glanced at him and then gasped as she saw the deputy in the straw, there was a rattling sound and then the door slid across. Now he could get a good look at her, the first thing he noticed was the Winchester she carried in her hand, it was pointed at Mick, her finger on the trigger as she stared at the dead man. She wore cowboy boots, dark blue jeans and a padded purple jacket, the brown suede English style riding hat looked rather out of place against the local outfit.

"Carter" she whispered, her attention on the dead man "Jesus" she shook her head.

"You know him?" Mick hoped the question would snap her out of it, he didn't want to scare her, especially not with that rifle pointed at him, but there wasn't much time.

"He, he went to school with my husband, he used to come over for poker nights when John was on leave."

So English, married and possibly to a military man, she handled the gun fairly familiarly too, looked like she knew how to sue it. Mick stored that knowledge away automatically, profiling was a habit and you never knew when a little knowledge, even of your rescuer, might just come in handy.

"I don't know you though, you don't come across many Welsh men in these parts?"

So she'd picked up on his accent too. She looked suspicious, well he could hardly blame her, it wasn't every day you came across a corpse and an injured man tied up, claiming to be an FBI agent, the non-American accent probably made it even more confusing.

"I could say the same for you love, I didn't expect to find a fellow Brit all the way out here either." He hoped the familiarity would help her identify with him and less likely to shoot him!

"My badge is in my pocket" he twisted his hip towards her, showing which side it was on.

She moved forwards cautiously, keeping the gun trained on him. Pulling the wallet from his pocket she scanned the I.D. quickly and then her gaze sharpened on him.

"Ok, so looks like you are who you say you are, Agent Rawson, so what the hell happened here?" as she spoke she pulled out a multi tool and flicked open a substantial looking knife. Mick fought against the urge to flinch away from her as she came at him with it, but all she did was cut the ropes on his wrists, and as Mick massaged some life back into his hands, she cut the bonds from his ankles.

"That looks bad" she indicate the bloodied jeans leg.

"I've had worse" he replied off handedly

She rolled her eyes, "yeah I bet you have, it's just a scratch right?" before he could protest she'd used the knife to cut the fabric up to his knee and scrutinised the wounds. "We need to get that bleeding stopped."

Well at least she isn't squeamish thought Mick "look, there's no time okay, we need to get out of here before he comes back."

"Before Todd comes back?"

"Yeah" he nodded, she offered her arm as Mick struggled to his feet, draping his arm over her shoulders she propped him up, helping him out of the stall and along the hallway to outside.

"You've heard about the people going missing?" he asked.

"Why do you think I'm carrying this?" she lifted the rifle. "The ranch hands made me promise not to ride out alone without it." She frowned, "so you thought Todd had something to do with it?"

"It was just a routine call, he was on a list of suspects, a pretty big list really, hence it just being the two of us out here. But it narrowed down pretty quickly when he shot your friend in there, without even having the courtesy to allow us to introduce ourselves" his tone was bitter, not having been able to prevent the deputies death hung heavy on the agent. "I guess the patrol car and uniform must have spooked him, he was probably expecting some kind of authority to show up eventually."

"We always thought something was odd about him, his father kept him on a pretty tight leash, but I never thought him capable of something like that, I suppose you never think it's someone you know." They'd reached outside now and Mick could see two horses, hence the hoof beats, there were also three dogs, sitting and laying near the horses, two Labradors and an Alsatian, the latter growled at the sight of him, rising to its feet.

"Easy Soldier, sit."

The dog sat back down again.

"You have a dog called Soldier?" Mick scoffed.

She shrugged. "He was a rescue case, came with the name."

"And the other two?"

"Apollo and Boomer." Mick raised an eyebrow and she sighed. "my husband was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica, the original series, he picked out the names."

That was the second time she'd used past tense, so widowed or divorced? She spoke with affection, so amicable or more probably widowed, especially if he'd been in the service.

"Have you got a cell phone?" Mick asked, after a quick one handed exploration of his pockets had shown his own was missing, probably taken by his captor.

She shook her head "there's no cell service out here and the phone in the house is dead, that's why I rode over."

"There's a radio in the patrol car, we can call it in, get people looking for him and drive out of here, you _can_ drive can't you?"

She pulled a face that made him laugh, he realised how much he was enjoying winding her up, maybe it was the concussion or just the fact he'd found a fellow Brit out here and _so_ it wasn't particularly professional, but it did seem to be helping to keep them both relaxed. He knew he'd be in trouble if she froze up or panicked on him. Hard as it was to admit, on his own with no team and a bum leg, he needed her, civilian or not and she did seem pretty capable.

She helped him towards the empty patrol car, but they saw instantly it was no good, the tyres had been slashed, looking inside Todd had been at work in there too, the radio was useless.

Without saying a word, she turned him towards the horses "you can _ride_ can't you?"

It was his turn to laugh as she turned the sarcasm on him "Yeah, I can ride a horse"

He didn't mention that it had been a long time since he'd done so and without being injured at the time, but you picked up a lot of random skills in the army, and one of the nicer foster families had had horses so he knew the basics.

They'd reached the horses which were standing patiently tied to a railing, one was saddled, the other wearing a rug against the cold, Mick shivered a little realising how chilled he was now they were out of the shelter of the barn, his own thin windbreaker wasn't very effective. The animals looked round in interest as they approached, one made a soft whinnying sound in greeting. Propping Mick against the railing, his rescuer reached for the back of the saddle, undoing a few straps she lifted down a roll of heavy fabric, flicked it flat and handed Mick a long raincoat. He realised she must have felt him shiver.

"Thanks!" he said putting the coat on and feeling the instant difference it made blocking out the chill wind.

"Good job you're kind of skinny or it wouldn't have fitted" Whilst she'd been speaking she'd undone one of the packs tied to the saddle, pulling out what looked like a first aid kit.

"I'm all muscle babe!" he protested, before getting serious "Look we really do need to get out of here" he tried again to stress the urgency to her, but she just shook her head and handed him the rifle, he recognised it as a Winchester 63, semi-automatic, an antique really, they hadn't made them in a while, but he knew they were a damn fine weapon for their type and this one looked well cared for.

She noticed him looking at it "it was a present from my husband, so look after it. We get you patched up first and then we head out, I'm not having you fall out of the saddle from blood loss."

Mick had to admit she had a point, but he was itching to get out of there, one gun and a civilian against who knows what arms this Todd had when he came back, but she was surprisingly efficient and moments later his leg was padded up with gauze and bandaged…

"Pink?!" He exclaimed in disgust


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Pink?!" Mick exclaimed in disgust.

The bandages were some kind of sticky stuff, wrapped around his leg over the gauze pads she'd applied, and worse the stuff was day-glo pink.

Looking up at him and grinning, she pulled his jeans leg back over the bandage, making a show of covering it up.

She stood up, "it's vet wrap, very useful stuff for patching up stock and that was just the colour I had in my pack, so quit whining and get on the horse."

"At least animals are colour blind" Rawson grumbled.

Pulling him up from the railing she helped him face side on to the saddled horse, "this is Buck,"

"Not liking that name so much," Mick stated as he put his weight on the bad leg and used his good one to stand in the stirrup and lever himself into the saddle, with Lee pushing him up from behind.

"It's short for Starbuck, he'll look after you, we put all the dudes up on him"

"Let me guess, Battlestar Galactica again?" he frowned "and I'm guessing 'dude' doesn't mean cool bloke either?"

"Uh-huh" she nodded grinning.

"Where are you off to?" Mick asked as she moved away.

"To get on Harley of course, Buck can't carry both our weights"

"But there's no saddle"

His only answer was a raised eyebrow and another eye roll from the lady as she untied Buck and used the spare lead rope to make a pair of rope reins attached to the head collar Harley wore. Then she led him over to a gate which she clambered up to get enough height to shimmy up onto his rugged back.

"Right, let's get out of here"

Now mounted she nudged Harley forwards, whistling to the dogs, she led the way into the line of trees, Buck just followed on with little input from Mick, which he found reassuring, and a little offensive.

The further they got from the farm and into the cover the trees provided, the better Mick felt, though his senses were still on high alert, he had to admit that the gentle movement of the horse and the fact they were going somewhere was good, even if it did slightly irritate his leg wounds. She'd done a good job of bandaging it, the heavy padding she'd applied to stop the bleeding helped to soften any aggravation from the movement, so it wasn't a problem. And Buck, true to her word seemed a pretty placid fella, happy to plod after the other horse along the narrow trail.

"So what made you ride out here? Our records didn't indicate any family?" so it wasn't likely that she was leading him back to the subject, and Mick hated that the FBI part of him couldn't just accept that she'd happened to turn up at the right moment. But he had to check that she wasn't somehow working with their suspect, they had profiled the guy as a loner, but they could have been wrong.

"Harley here needs a shoe put on," she indicated the rugged horse, now mick looked he could see why the horse had sounded odd, one foot had a kind of boot thing on. "Temporary replacement for a shoe, Todd's always been a bit odd, but he's gentle with the horses and he's almost as good a farrier as his father was. I was hoping he'd be there to put it back on for me and I thought I'd check up on him, he seemed a bit lost since his dad died," she shook her head, "guess he was more lost than we ever imagined."

"Yeah, well, it's not always easy to spot a psychopath, that's where we usually come in." they rode for a moment in silence.

"Hey, I just realised I never caught your name?" Mick called forward to her, mentally kicking himself for making such a rookie mistake, in his haste to leave the farm and probably also due to a touch of concussion he'd forgotten the most basic of questions!

"My friends call me Lee."

Mick picked up on the slight pause before the name

"Well, pleased to meet you Lee."

Hmm, was she lying about her name? But she'd seemed more embarrassed than untruthful, plus there was the whole 'my friends call me' bit, so probably her real name was something awful. Mick was tempted to rise to the challenge, but seeing as how she'd gotten him out of the fix he'd been in, he decided to cut her some slack.

Plus he was sitting on her horse, which had the only saddle and she was the only one who knew the way to safety.

"Yeah, probably better to be a gentleman right now." He muttered to himself

"You ok back there?" she turned to look back at him.

"Doing just fine thanks, Buck here seems to know exactly where he's going. How far is it to your place?"

"Bet that's not the first time you've asked a lady that?" She looked back with a cheeky grin.

He couldn't help but return the grin with one of his own.

"Thankfully for me they weren't all ladies" he said suggestively.

He'd played it just right, that one got a full on laugh from her. "Well don't you go getting any ideas Agent Rawson!"

He took the opportunity of the trail widening out just then to nudge Buck into a jog and ride up beside her.

"Why, is your husband the jealous type?" he asked, deciding to test out his theory. A beat too long of silence and he felt bad for having asked, he'd been too close to the mark.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked, I kind of wondered back there, the way you spoke about him…" he trailed off.

"He died almost two years ago now," her smile was wistful, but not tearful. "He was a marine, stationed in Afghanistan, his team was ambushed, he didn't make it out."

"I'm sorry" he replied sincerely, he'd had too many friends himself go out like that.

She nodded her thanks "He died doing what he believed in and I'm very proud of him." She fell silent.

Yeah, so that had rather killed the mood, not wanting to spend the rest of the ride in an uncomfortable silence Mick cast around for a change of subject.

"So what's with that hat, it doesn't quite go with the rest of the cowgirl outfit, and you seem proficient enough not to need one?" he offered.

"I never ride without one," she shrugged, "the hands all used to laugh at me, but I don't care, I learnt my lesson the hard way." She looked across at him "I was 17, we were just jumping at a local competition, nothing challenging, my friends told me later that my horse had taken off too early for the jump and we ended up crashing through it. I woke up in hospital 5 days later with a broken collar bone, fractured ribs and no memory of the day of the accident at all, I remember cleaning my tack the night before and then nothing."

"Head injuries can be like that sometimes" well, he had plenty of experience with those.

"Yeah, when I was awake enough the docs showed me my hat, it had a huge crack in it, but they told me it saved my life. I've never ridden without one since, the jokes don't bother me."

"But you let me ride without one, so obviously you don't value my life much then" Mick teased her.

"Hmm, I haven't quite decided yet. And would you rather I'd made you walk?"

Mick shook his head, glancing down at the blood soaked and tattered leg of his jeans, walking definitely wasn't a good idea right now.

"No ma'am" he said contritely and emphatically.

A moment later they emerged from the trees, Mick checked his watch, they'd been in the trees about 30 minutes he reckoned and then he looked up and couldn't help but be impressed by the sight, Buck stopped as he felt the man's balance shift.

Lee reined in beside him. "Breath taking isn't it."

"It sure is." He replied, taking in the huge blue sky above an ocean of green grass rippling lightly in the breeze, between the two, far off in the distance was another line of trees and rising above them a row of jagged snow-capped peaks.

"This fence is the start of my father-in-law's land."

She moved forwards again, holding open a nearby gate in the fence that had obviously been designed for ridden access to the forest trail. Mick followed her through, she closed it and rejoiced him.

"I live at the old homestead, down there in the basin and behind those trees" she pointed across the grass towards a fold in the land which led down and became hidden behind the curve of the forest which bent around a couple of miles to their left. "We can move faster out here on the pasture, if your leg can stand up to it?"

"I'll give it a go"

Lee moved her rein hand forward slightly and Harley moved up into a jog, Mick tried to match her effortless aid, but in the end had to resort to nudging Buck with his legs rather less elegantly, Lee matched her pace with his clearly watching him for any signs of discomfort.

"Lighten your feet in the stirrups, Newton's law of opposites, if you push down with your feet, your bum will come out of the saddle."

He looked at her incredulously, but Lee was looking ahead again and so he simply tried to follow her instruction and was surprised at how right she's been, this was far more comfortable.

"That's it. Now loosen your rib cage and absorb the movement through your back,"

This time he was a little more ready to comply.

"Oops, a bit too much, that's right."

He pulled a face at her, but in truth he really did feel more secure in the saddle now.

"Ready to go up a gear? We'll keep it steady, no racing"

As if he would, even without the bum leg Mick wasn't practised enough to go bombing around on horseback, but the hell he was going to tell her that! So instead he just smiled "Right behind you."

Harley's acceleration looked effortless and the agent barely had to do anything as Buck moved forward to match his friend's pace, Mick felt relieved that the so far placid horse seemed to feel no need to compete with Lee's mount. Instead they settled into a smooth lope, keeping alongside Lee and Harley. Mick was pleased to find that it was comfortable, like being in a rocking chair, not hugely fast, but they still moved rapidly over the grass. Risking a look back Mick couldn't see the gate they'd passed through. Looking forward again he noticed Lee glancing at him, concerned, he genuinely grinned at her, realising he hadn't felt this free in a long time. Her own face lightened in response to his obvious pleasure and, light hearted, forgetting for a moment what had led them to this point, they simply enjoyed the journey.


	4. Chapter 4

In what felt like no time they'd reached the bottom of the valley and turned to ride along it, a herd of cattle grazed, looking up curiously as the horses passed.

Mick could make out buildings ahead of them, as they came closer Lee reined back into a jog and then to a walk to cool the horses off, though Mick figured they were less the worse for wear than he was. Enjoyable as the ride had been he could feel the fatigue caused by the crack to his head and leg wound setting in and knew he'd be glad to reach the comfort of the house.

They passed smaller fenced pastures and then through another gate, Lee dismounting this time to open it and Mick looked around at the buildings, there was a huge covered sand school to the left of the turning space for cars. A goose necked horse trailer parked to one side and on the other, with a covered walkway connecting it to the school, was clearly the horse barn. Mick expected them to head for that, but instead Lee led Harley to the right, towards a house that was a large log cabin at heart, but had been extended into something more substantial over time. Hitching Harley to the garden fence Lee turned to Mick and helped him down.

"Welcome to the Old Homestead" she gestured to the house before tying Buck next to Harley and then taking Mick's arm to help take weight off of his injured leg.

"It's not quite what I expected." Mick commented.

He wasn't sure what he'd expected really, something run down, but homey, maybe a beat up old Chevy truck on the drive. Instead the place was well kept and clearly there was money here, though it was understated, rather than brash, and that feeling continued inside. The interior was cosy and well appointed, a mish-mash of American and English styles and furniture. The front door opened straight into a big double height room with exposed beams, comfy armchairs and sofas, and cow hide rugs on the floor.

A large fireplace dominated one wall, a framed painting of a horse above it, and on the wall that held the door they'd just passed through there was a large framed photo of a man in dress uniform. To the right was an alcove leading out to what looked like the kitchen. But what took his gaze was the huge expanse of glass opposite, looking out over the same view he'd seen earlier, just from a different angle.

"I knew as soon as I saw that view that this was where I wanted to live. John had offered to leave the military, move to England for me, but this felt right, like coming home somehow."

He just nodded, there was a sense of peace to the landscape that he had to admit appealed to him too. They'd reached a big sofa that sat nearest the doorway and Mick lowered himself onto it, Lee fussing with the cushions, propping his leg up on the seat beside him.

Mick indicated the framed picture of the uniformed man.

"Your husband?" Mick asked, taking in the easy going smile and thinking maybe they'd have gotten along if they'd met on deployment, as long as the man had no idea of the interest he was beginning to feel for his wife.

Lee nodded, "He spent so much time away that a tiny part of me still expects him to come walking back in through that door. Even though I know that he won't." she shrugged "life goes on though and John wouldn't have wanted me to while away my days moping." Smiling again she reached for a side table and handed Mick a cordless phone. "We're at the Old Homestead, part of Three Peaks Ranch, the deputies will know it. I'll leave you to it and see to the horses. I'd better take the dogs, otherwise you'll find yourself sharing that sofa!"

Whistling to them she turned and left. Mick watched her leave and then dialled Cooper's mobile number, hoping he'd be in range of a cell tower.

"Hey Coop."

"Mick, where have you been? We were just about to send out search parties!"

"Yeah well, we got into a bit of a situation." He paused trying to figure out the best way to explain. "Look Coop the deputy, Carter, he's dead. The Jenkins place turned out to be the jackpot, guy started shooting at us before we realised what was going on."

Mick paused as he could hear Cooper updating the deputy in the car with him, he could them hear the man in the background radioing it in.

"Are you alright?" Coop was back with him.

"Yeah, I'm ok, took some pellets to the leg and then the sneaky S.O.B. knocked me out, not exactly my finest hour. He tied me up and then left, no idea where he went, though he sounded like he'd be returning."

"Are you still at the Jenkins's place?"

"No, I'm somewhere called the Old Homestead, near Three Peaks Ranch." Mick could hear Coop relaying that information, he'd clearly gotten a good response as Coop sounded puzzled when he came back on the line.

"Ok, we're on our way to you, we're the closest. Beth and Prophet will head out to the Jenkins place as they're in that area. Gina can join them, but we're having trouble reaching her, turns out the radios don't work much better than the cell phones" Mick could hear the frustration in his voice at not being able to keep tabs on his team. "Now how did you get free and why are you at this ranch?"

"Ah, now that's where it gets interesting. It's a really good story."

Sam rolled his eyes, "Mick!" he warned the younger man.

"Ok, old man, keep your hair on. So the short version is, I'm locked in this stable, trussed up like a thanksgiving turkey, when the cavalry arrives. Literally, on a horse."

"On a horse?"

"Yeah a horse, this is rural Montana mate, they do have a lot of horses round here. Anyway this woman, Lee's her name, though I'm not sure if that's her full name, got the feeling there's a story there too." He meandered.

"Mick!" Sam interjected trying to bring him back on track.

"Oops sorry, so she turns up and lets me loose. She patched me up pretty good, but since Jenkins had de-commissioned the patrol car and it's radio, I was a bit stuck for transportation and since he hadn't been paying the phone bill and there was no cell coverage, I couldn't call for back-up. So as Lee had a spare horse I figured it was best to get us both out of there and go for help."

"So she took you back to her place?"

"Whoa, steady on mate, she's a widow." Mick joked.

"Like that would stop you." Coop joked back. "You're really ok?"

"Yeah, nothing a few stitches and some aspirin wouldn't cure."

"Right sit tight," he checked with the deputy, "we should be with you in about 30 minutes."


	5. Chapter 5

A/n – bit sparse on the reviews L, but I decided to post two chapters tonight anyway whilst my courage holds, determined to finish this one, even though other stories keep intruding. This chapter was hard to write and it's not perfect, but it's time to let it go. Been trying to draw on all of the episodes of CM I've watched, so hopefully my unsub is fairly realistic, I figured him being a bit insane would explain away any iffy bits of writing lol. I also had a kind of Gollum inspired thing going on whilst writing him hence the muttering.

Mick put the phone down on the coffee table and laid back, man, this sofa was comfy, he closed his eyes for just a moment.

He jerked awake, he didn't know how much later.

"Damn, must have dosed off." He muttered.

Thinking back to what must have woken him he realised it was the sound of a vehicle pulling up, maybe he'd been asleep long enough for Sam to arrive, Rawson sat up, glad that his boss hadn't caught him napping. He looked to the door, expecting to see Cooper walking in, wondering if it had locked behind Lee and whether he'd need to get up to open it. Turned out he didn't need to, as the door swung open, but it wasn't Sam the other side.

 _Out of the frying pan into the fire mate!_ Mick thought bitterly to himself at the sight of Jenkins entering the room, Mick's own gun held in his hand. Exposed in the middle of the room as he was, there was nowhere for Mick to take cover, even if he'd been able to move at his usual speed. He was a sitting duck once again.

"You!" Todd almost spat at Mick. "I knew I'd find you here."

"How? How did you know mate?"

"Saw the hoof prints, Miss Lee's the only one I know round here uses them boots when her horses loose a shoe. See I'm not so stupid, they say I'm stupid, but I'm not." He varied between talking to Mick and muttering to himself.

Mick quickly thought back over the rough profile they'd put together from what little they knew, trying to gather knowledge that could help him. Due to the timings of the killings, they'd figured he was either unemployed or self- employed. They'd been killed at or near where they were taken from, so the unsub hadn't been inclined or able to take them home. The earliest kills had been very low risk victims and hesitant, lacking in confidence and skill, but there'd been strength and a certain cunning to lure the victims and avoid detection by the police.

So probably low esteem or confidence issues, a lack of education, not book smart, a bit slow possibly, but not stupid. The home life, everything, yeah, all of that fitted here Mick thought as he watched Todd pacing the floor, a few steps one way, then back again, muttering to himself, agitated. But the gun never left Mick for more than a few seconds and Todd stayed far enough away that Rawson knew he couldn't move fast enough before the gun came into play. He glanced at his watch, he hadn't slept for long, but Coop had to be close. Mick hoped he would be close, his only chance was to try and talk Todd out of killing him or at least buy himself enough time for Sam to get there in time to save him.

"Useless, useless they told me, but I showed them, showed them I did." Todd's voice started as a mutter, but gradually raised as he switched to directing his words at Mick "I would have shown him too, but he died too soon, I wasn't ready. He told me I was good for nothing." He was back to talking to himself again.

"Who told you?" Mick asked trying to build a dialogue, although he had a pretty good idea who Jenkins was talking about.

"My pa, he told me. Good for nothing he said, but I showed him, I wanted to show him."

Now the man was anguished, angry, obviously upset at not being able to show his father his accomplishments. The older male targets probably occurred after the Pa's death Mick figured, Jenkins' frustration finding an outlet. But he needed to keep him talking.

"What did you went to show him Todd?"

He looked confused at Mick's use of his name.

"I wanted to show him that I was good at something," he gave a sick grin, sneering. "I was good at killing those people. It was hard at first, but it felt good and no-one knew, no-one caught me and I knew I'd found what I was good at. It was hard to get away from Pa but I did it, I did it." He drifted into talking to himself.

"How did you do that?" Mick asked trying to keep him conversing, hoping to find something he could use to get through to the man, even though he knew with this type of unsub it was unlikely.

"He'd go fishing and hunting with his friends and hide the keys to the truck, but I knew where he kept them. Stupid Todd, useless Todd, but I showed him! I took the truck and did what I was good at. Sometimes I'd have to drive Pa into town to the big hospital, we'd stay overnight, that was so good, so many to choose from." He grinned with pleasure, Mick tried not let the revulsion he felt show on his face. "I stopped them laughing at me."

"Who laughed at you Todd?"

For a moment Mick thought he'd made a mistake, Todd became angry pointing the gun at Mick's chest, for a moment he worried he was going to fire right then, but no, the anger was at what was inside his head, not Mick, at least not right now.

"Girls, they laughed at me."

"At school?"

"They all laugh at me. Pretty girls, I'd ask them out and they'd laugh at me, not so pretty girls now though." He sneered, but his face lit up at the memory of how he'd stopped them laughing at him, even though the one's he'd killed and mutilated hadn't been the ones to laugh, he clearly couldn't tell the difference any more.

Mick felt a rush of relief that he'd been there at Todd's ranch that day and at that time. If he'd gotten there later, it could have been Lee's body they'd found next, her face cut and mutilated. She'd have been an easy target riding onto his ranch alone, even with her rifle, not suspecting the danger she'd have been in.

"I stopped them laughing at me!"

"They can be cruel, women, can't they?" Again Mick tried to connect with him on any level, trying to keep him talking and stop him from spiralling out of control.

"They laughed at you too?"

"Yeah mate, they laughed at me too."

Todd was thoughtful for a moment, muttering to himself again and pacing.

"I didn't get caught, no-one knew my little secret, I wanted to l tell them, but I wasn't ready yet, wasn't ready." He wheeled on Mick, angry again "and then you came, you found me. How did you find me?"

"We didn't, we didn't know for sure it was you, we were just interviewing everyone, you were good Todd, you fooled us."

But his words didn't get through.

"Spoiled everything, useless Todd, 'good for nothing' Todd" Mick could hear him muttering to himself. "They'll laugh at you again Todd, caught by the FBI"

"Yeah Todd, but it took the FBI to catch you mate, you were that good. They brought in the big ol to find you! Look turn yourself in." it was worth a try "I'll tell everyone how skilled you were, how we didn't catch you, how you turned yourself in so we could show everyone what you'd achieved, they won't laugh at you anymore." Well that was the truth anyway, hard to find any humour in what he'd done to those people.

For a moment Mick thought he'd gotten through to him, Todd really seemed to be thinking about what he'd said. But Mick's hope sank as Todd shook his head, too suspicious to accept it.

"No, no, I'm not finished yet, and you spoiled it, why did you have to spoil everything."

The gun raised along with Todd's' voice and Mick knew that this was it, he'd run out of time.


	6. Chapter 6

a/n someone raised my various uses of Mick's name, narration is not my strong point, but I find it really annoying and repetitive to continually refer to my character as Mick or he, all of the time, and since on the show they quite often use surnames and nicknames it's nice to be able to have those extra descriptions to play with. This chapters been written for a while, but I'm totally struggling with the rest, determined to finish though! Probably be another two or three till the end of the story and then probably a follow up chapter, I might have one or two more in this universe though, more angst stuff for Mick lol.

Lee had just finished running a brush over Harley and buckled on a fresh rug when she heard the sound of a truck pulling into the yard. Feeling foolish, but still spooked by the day's earlier events, she barely paused before heading back into the tack room for the rifle. Taking it from the gun locker, she checked and reloaded it. Carrying it felt stupid, but better safe than sorry, Lee made her way to the barn door and looked outside.

She cursed as she recognised it as Jenkins' truck, it was empty, with no sign of him. But the front door to the house now stood wide open, she was sure she'd pulled it too, so it was obvious where he'd gone. After shutting the dogs inside a stall, and taking care to stay out of sight of the house's windows, she crept across the drive to the open door.

Slipping her boots off before mounting the steps to the porch so as not to make a noise, she padded in socked feet up the wooden stairs to the side of the open front door, keeping low she risked a look inside. Mick was on the sofa still, though he'd swung his legs to the floor and was now facing Todd, talking to him. Neither of them had noticed her yet, she was to Todd's right and his focus was on Mick. Suddenly he raised his voice and became agitated, clearly whatever Mick was saying wasn't working. Swallowing down her fear she moved the rifle to her hip, relived that John had enjoyed teaching her to shoot and so had been thorough in their lessons, she silently offered up a prayer to him to give her some of his strength, and slowly entered the room.

"Todd, honey?" she swallowed, trying to wet her dry throat as they both turned to look at her. Mick looked shocked, wide eyed and angry, he clearly thought she shouldn't have come, but she ignored him, Todd was more important right now, she focused all of her attention on him. "Todd, please, you need to put that gun down now, ok?"

He shook his head, blinking, her appearance had clearly thrown him. "You won't shoot me," he sneered at her, dismissing her as a threat he gestured with the gun towards Mick, his voice rising again "I have to kill him, he spoiled everything!" he refocused on the agent.

He'd been too far away and the distraction had been too short for Mick to have risked tackling him. The hand gun had never moved away from his direction and with an injured leg he couldn't have moved fast enough. Mick knew he was running out of time, his only hope was that if Todd killed him, Lee would shoot Todd in time to save herself.

"Please Todd you need to put that gun down now, I won't ask you again!"

This time he ignored her, his attention completely on Mick and it was clear that he was preparing to shoot the agent.

"TODD!" She shouted, and for a moment Mick thought she'd lost it and he made to leap forward to try and save her somehow, even if it meant risking his own life, they were both dead anyway.

But he wasn't needed, she hadn't panicked, instead her plan had worked. The outburst had surprised Jenkins enough that he had swung the gun away from mick towards her. As soon as Rawson was out of danger, but before Todd's gun could reach her direction, she took the moment to fire, hitting him once, then twice in the chest, both near perfect shots. A look of shock crossed his face before the gun dropped from lifeless fingers and he crumpled to the floor. Life was gone seconds after his body hit it.

Lee just stood there unmoving, frozen, as Mick, his training kicking in, cleared his weapon and checked for a pulse, even though it was clear that there'd be none, the routine was a comfort and necessary.

That done he turned to Lee, making his way to her as best he could on his injured leg, and making sure he didn't get in front of the barrel, just in case, he reached her and gently took the gun.

"C'mon, I think we could both do with a drink" he smiled at her and she seemed to shake herself awake, focusing on him.

"He was going to kill you!"

"Yeah he was" he reached up and gently turned her face away from where it had returned to the body. "Hey darlin, look at me instead," he grinned cheekily "I'm much better looking" and a moment later as his teasing words registered she gave a ghost of a smile. "Now that's more like it, so am I going to have to find the coffee pot by myself or are you going to take pity on a poor injured and thirsty man?"

Still a bit zombie like she didn't resist as he draped an arm across her shoulders and they began to move towards the kitchen together.

Mick paused, "can I use your phone again? I'd better let my boss know what happened here," he looked back towards the body on the rug "he might get the wrong idea when he turns up and sees that truck and I'd hate for you to get trigger happy and shoot him too." He pulled a face at her.

He felt pleased as this got a small laugh from her and not so pleased since it also netted him an elbow to the ribs.

"I don't plan on making a habit of it, and in case you'd forgotten you're holding my gun!"

"I'm sure you could be very dangerous with a teaspoon. OW! Hey, injured man here." She'd elbowed him in the ribs, pulling a face, he couldn't help but be glad at the sign that she was holding it together.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

a/n - ok so I hate most of this chapter, just could not get it to flow how I wanted, afraid any legal bits are just what I could find on wiki so apologies for any glaring law mistakes! But invoking my new year's resolution of accepting imperfections, letting go and completing stuff, I'm going to post this anyway, please be kind!

Sam couldn't help but worry about his agent as the deputy negotiated the twisting tree lined drive that was part of the ranch property. Mick had sounded ok and although he tended to play down injuries he knew how important honesty was in the field, so Mick really wasn't badly hurt, but the mental effects of the morning's events could be a problem, Sam was brought out of his thoughts by the deputy speaking.

"This is Lee's place, the Old Homestead… what the …" Sam's worry increased as the deputy swore and reached for his side arm, opening the car door.

Sam followed suit, "what is it?"

"That's Jenkins' truck," he replied, indicating the battered vehicle.

Ducking low they made their way to the still open front door, scanning the other buildings as they went for signs of movement.

The deputy reached the door first, Sam joined him a second later. After a quick non-verbal communication between them, Sam made entry first, darting around the door, scanning the room to his left, the deputy followed, looking to the right. Spotting the body on the floor and seeing that the rest of the room was clear Sam moved forwards cautiously, gun ready.

"Hey Sam, we're in here."

"Mick?" Cooper looked to his right at the sound of Mick's voice and could see him sat on a chair at the kitchen table, grinning. Breathing a sigh of relief, but still uncertain Sam kept his weapon drawn and made his way towards the archway. "You ok Mick?"

"Well I could with a real drink, but Lee here won't let me have anything stronger than water," he pulled a face and waved a glass of clear liquid.

Finally reassured that everything was ok Sam holstered his weapon, the deputy following his lead.

"So what happened this time?" he asked with a hint of frustration, gesturing towards the body. As he moved into the room he looked around, seeing a woman who had to be Lee, sitting at the table. The deputy had filled him in about her background on the drive, but still he hadn't been sure what to expect, she seemed lost in thought and not particularly pleasant ones either. Continuing his survey Sam also picked up on the rifle laid on the counter and Mick's leg propped up on a chair.

Mick grimaced. "Jenkins decided to come back and finish the job he started earlier, once again Lee here had to come to my rescue." He gestured to the woman.

"So Jenkins turned up here, after you called me?"

Mick nodded, pulling a face, "yeah, he pulled my own gun in me."

"So then what?" he prompted the younger agent, wanting to at least get the basics of the story out of him for now.

"I thought I'd had it, I tried talking him down, but the guy was a total psycho. I wasn't getting anywhere and was about to try and go out fighting when Lee strolls in with her rifle at the ready." He paused, looking across at Lee, concerned.

Sam smirked at the younger agent, having to be rescued not once, but twice had to be pretty hard for him to handle. The fact it was a woman probably wouldn't bother him so much, Coop knew that for all of the young sniper's apparently chauvinistic comments, he was used to working with women in dangerous situations, both in his military days and now in the FBI. Mick respected the abilities of Beth and Gina, and trusted them to have his back in the field, as much as Prophet and himself. But the fact he'd been a sitting duck both times would cause the self-reliant young man a few issues. Although watching his reactions as they talked, Sam realised that more was worrying Rawson than his loss of face, he seemed more than usually concerned about the woman who sat across from him, though that could just be down to gratitude for saving him.

"So Mrs Morgan took the shot?" that would explain why she had been so quiet so far and some of Mick's concern for her.

Sam took a more thorough look at Mick's rescuer, Lee was pale and looked to be in shock, not surprising really, given what she'd just done, even seasoned FBI agents had difficulties, especially with their first kill. She hadn't acknowledged their arrival beyond raising her head to look at them and then returned to nursing her own apparently untouched glass of something that looked stronger than water.

Mick followed his glance, looking concerned, "Yeah, Lee shot Jenkins," he reached out and took her hand, "it was a good shot." He reassured her.

Finally she looked at them.

"Well, I couldn't let him kill you" she said wryly, the jokey tone obviously a bit of an effort.

"You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that" he joked squeezing her hand, and turned serious "you saved my life in there, ok? Your husband would be proud of you."

"So what happens to me now?" she asked an edge of fear to her voice.

Sam and Mick exchanged glances and Sam shrugged.

"You shot Jenkins to save my agent, there'll have to be an enquiry of course, but it'll be deemed justifiable homicide and you'll be acquitted."

She nodded but still looked afraid.

Mick realised what might be worrying her.

"You won't have to do any jail time or anything like that, ok? I'll make sure of that"

Sam moved to sit on an empty chair next to her, wanting her to see how sincere he was and to put her fears at rest.

"You have nothing to fear from the law, you have my word. You defended a federal agent in the course of his duties. There is no doubt in my mind that Jenkins would have taken the shot, given the number of kills he'd already amassed. You'll have the full force of the FBI behind you."

She nodded in response, smiling faintly and looking a little calmer now.

"Thank you."

After giving her a smile and answering nod, Sam stood again, pulling out his cell phone, pleased to see that there was reception out here, only question was would anyone else have reception?

"I'd better try and get hold of the team, let Beth and Prophet know that they're on evidence collection, rather than a manhunt." Looking at Mick he continued, "We'd better get you to a hospital too and get that leg checked out."

"That's easy enough, there's a medical clinic in town." The deputy spoke up. "Doc Warren's used to dealing with gunshot wounds, folks round here just won't learn that alcohol and hunting don't mix! He'll fix you up alright, I can drive you if you like?"

"Sounds good, but we'd better wait until I can get some more people out here to secure the scene, Mick you ok to wait a little longer?"

"Sure thing Coop."

They didn't have to wait very long though as Gina and her deputy escort had finally been contacted and happened to be nearby on their way to Jenkins' place, so just diverted to join them instead. With the coroner's van not far behind them the ranch house was about to get a bit crowded, so Sam decided it was a good time for Mick to head out.

Once Gina had gotten most of the story and satisfied herself that her team mate wasn't badly hurt Sam spoke up.

"Deputy Collins, if you wouldn't mind taking that trip to the medical centre now?"

"Sure thing." The amiable man agreed.

"Mrs Morgan, you'd better get checked out too." Better safe than sorry, she had a little more colour in her face now they'd alleviated the worst of her fears, but still Sam figured she should get checked out. Plus it might reassure Mick who, Sam had noticed, kept shooting her little concerned glances.

"I'm fine" Lee replied, Sam opened his mouth to try and persuade her, but Mick intervened first.

"Hey, if I've got to go to the hospital for this scratch, then you've got to come too, look, I'll even let you hold my hand if you get scared." He held his hand out to her.

Lee rolled her eyes at him in response looking exasperated, she didn't take the offered hand and Mick pouted at her in mock disappointment. Sam raised an eyebrow at their horsing around, but figured that Mick knew what he was doing. It couldn't be easy for her to deal with everything she'd gone through that day, Mick's teasing seemed to bring her out of her shell and so Sam decided it was best to play along.

"I might need to handcuff him to you ma'am, that way you can be in charge of making sure he doesn't sign himself out A.M.A. He has a bit of a reputation for disappearing from medical facilities."

"Hey, low blow Coop!" Rawson protested "and it was only the once… well ok, maybe twice…, that time in Faluja doesn't count!" He called back as a now giggling Lee and the deputy helped him to his feet and walked him out, one of his arms across each of their shoulders.

Sam had a feeling that she might just take him seriously about keeping an eye on Mick, which wasn't a bad thing given his usual knack for avoiding medical treatment, it seemed that the young sniper might just have met his match in the woman. Musing on the similarities between the two and wondering how exactly Mick felt towards her Sam returned to the job at hand.


	8. Chapter 8

A/n – ok, so the rubber band thing is totally childish, but it was just so much fun to write and I think I got Beth's response on target too so I just had to keep it in, and I could totally see Mick pulling something like that, with a bit of egging on from his accomplice of course! Struggling with writer's block and lost my way a bit, so another chapter I'm not happy with, but still determined to finish this, probably two more chapters to go. And then possibly another Mick/Lee story in the works.

Lee and Mick had been split up on reaching the med centre, Lee heading off to a treatment room with a nurse. Whilst Mick was taken straight through to X-ray so they could make sure there was no bone damage from the pellets. On his way back to a treatment room he passed Lee sat in the waiting room, she was on her own. Mick figured she'd probably smiled and told everyone she was ok and sent the deputy off to the station, Mick knew that was the kind of thing he'd have done. But he could see that she was far from fine, the smile they exchanged as he passed her, with no time to speak, was strained on her part.

He wanted her to be with him so he could make her laugh, pull her out of brooding on her thoughts, but it was probably best she stay away for the moment. She'd shown no sign of trouble at the sight of blood so far, but even Mick had to admit that the little plinking sound each pellet made as it hit the kidney dish would be a difficult sound for anyone to take. Finally the last pellet hit the dish.

"An even dozen, he got you good, but no real damage done," the doctor smiled at him "you'll be up and about in no time, we'll give you a shot of antibiotics and some more to take with you along with some pain killers. Stay off of that leg for a week or so and as long as there are no complications you'll be right as rain. Jo'll get this cleaned up and find you some crutches."

"Thanks Doc."

"You're welcome young man."

The nurse, Jo, took his place, clearing up the bloodied cloths beneath Mick's leg before bandaging it up efficiently, she did as good a job as Lee had and at least this time his leg wasn't wrapped in day-glow pink, that brought his thoughts back to Lee.

"Hey doc, could you send Mrs Morgan in?" he caught the man as he opened the door.

"Lee? Sure I'll ask her."

Lee came through the door as Jo left, the two women exchanged smiles, but then Lee stood by the door awkwardly, Mick motioned her over.

"I won't break, come on or are you planning on guarding the door to make sure I don't escape?"

That earnt him a half hearted smile, but at least she came closer, moving to sit at the bedside chair. She wouldn't meet his gaze, Mick narrowed his eyes, wondering what could be playing on her mind now.

"How are you feeling?" He'd decided on a straightforward approach.

"Not entirely sure to be honest, I mean, I guess I should feel bad about killing him, but I don't know how I feel."

"You're not doing back flips or boasting about it, so I'd say your reaction was ok, as long you don't plan on doing it again?" he asked cheekily.

"If I spend too much time around you, I just might feel the urge."

Mick mock pouted, secretly pleased at the show of spirit, "Aw you don't really mean that." The light moment had passed again though and she looked sombre, "so what's really eating at you?"

She took a deep breath, "how it could have ended differently, I was so scared, if I hadn't taken the shot," Mick could see her hands trembling and he couldn't see her face as she stared down at them, but he could hear her voice breaking. "if I'd missed, if I'd gotten it wrong, god Mick..."

"Hey, come here." Mick half pulled her up onto the bed next to him and wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed into his shoulder. "Why are you worrying? You did it, I'm still alive thanks to you. I meant what I said, John would be proud of you. Hell, I'm proud of you. You did good back there."

The crying subsided, but Lee stayed where she was, Mick made no move to push her away, instead he found himself not wanting her to leave.

They were still in that position a few moments later when Sam appeared at the door, he looked at Mick concerned, but Mick just nodded and gave him a small smile, Sam figured things were ok so he left Mick to it. Wanting to give him some space, Sam decided to go find the doctor on the pretext of getting Mick's medical details from an unimpeachable source, chances were Mick would only give him the highlights, leaving out on-going 'unimportant' things like pain killers and antibiotics.

Mission accomplished Sam returned to the treatment room, Lee had departed to find the ladies and the nurse had returned with Mick's tablets, which Sam took immediate charge of, and a pair of crutches. The latter Mick took with a mixture of annoyance and childish glee which caused Sam to roll his eyes, an injured and restless Mick was going to be, well, Sam decided to go with 'interesting' to have around.

The doctor had given Mick the all clear to leave, so Sam waited for Lee to return and offered to take them both back to the station to give their statements. Watching the two of them on the journey Sam couldn't help but notice how protective they both seemed of the other, Mick glancing across to Lee to see that she was happy and not brooding again, Lee fussing over Mick, holding doors and making sure he wasn't in danger of knocking his bandaged leg.

Over all of this the banter had begun between them again, Lee giving as much as she got, the two seemed unusually comfortable together Sam mused. For all of Mick's gregarious seeming nature it actually covered the fact that the younger man could be shy around others, Sam knew that outside of the team and his military buddies there were few people that Mick felt comfortable enough to be himself around when the situation wasn't work related. It was interesting to see him react this way so quickly to someone outside of that.

The station only had the one interview room so Prophet took Lee into it to get her verbal statement, whilst Sam would get Mick's more through report in an office, though when Sam had been distracted for moment on the way there he found the younger man wasn't following him and had disappeared from the bull pen.

He hadn't gone far, wanting to be sure that Lee was settled Mick had gone to the one way mirror outside the interview room where Beth stood, wanting to get the full story herself. Of course Prophet was a total gentleman, making sure Lee was comfortable, even so Mick was glad he'd come for a look see as he hit the jackpot. As Simms began the interview Mick's earlier idea regarding Lee's name proved correct.

"Leticia!" Mick whooped, "I knew it!"

He'd spoken loudly enough to be heard in the interview room and Lee looked up, eye's narrowing.

"Ooh, you are sooo busted!" Beth teased him.

Sam had also chosen that moment to track him down, so looking decidedly guilty and hoping Lee would have forgotten about this by the time they'd finished, Mick followed his boss out.

Interviews over and paperwork signed, Mick had been joined in the office with Lee. He was supposed to be resting, but banter and boredom between the two had rapidly devolved into a rubber band flinging competition. Fortunately the target was a bin, although trick shots had been introduced and so there were a great many bands that hadn't made it which were scattered around the floor, walls and even one hanging from the ceiling. An incident which had led to considerable good natured arguments between the two as to whose band that one had been. Both swearing it belonged to the other, before declaring an amnesty and continuing the band contest.

"Er, shouldn't we put a stop to that?" Beth asked, eyebrow raised.

"No, let them have some fun, they both had a tough day today." Sam responded, wondering as he watched which of them was getting the most out of the entertainment, he was pleased to see Mick relaxing and was prepared to put up with some raucousness if it meant he was ok. Looking at the tolerant grins on the rest of the team's faces it was clear they felt the same. "They'll run out of rubber bands soon enough."

Beth sighed " _That's_ what's worrying me!" she half joked, wondering what they'd find to get up to when that happened.

Coop looked at them again and grimaced. "Yeah, you could be right." There was no telling what entertainment Mick might think up next. "By the looks of things they've finished with their statements, I'll get one of the officers to take Lee home. Let's head back to the hotel and finish this off in the morning, we can't fly out until the afternoon anyway so there's no rush."

He didn't get any arguments from them, though Mick looked disappointed to lose his willing accomplice, hugging Lee goodbye before she left.


End file.
